Analysis

Government's attitude towards LGBT in Nepal
Following the monarchy that ended in 2007, the Nepalese government legalized homosexuality in 2007 along with the introduction of several new law sets.
In the 2011 Nepal census, the Central Bureau of Statistics officially recognized a third gender in addition to male and female. In what is believed to be a world first, Nepal's Central Bureau of Statistics is giving official recognition to gay and transgender people, a move seen as major victory for equality. A spokesman for the statistics bureau, Bikash Bista, said the new categorization was an attempt to open up the traditionally conservative country up to different points of view (Shrestha 2011).In May 2012, Nepal’s Home Ministry issued directives to “provide citizenship to gays under the ‘others’ category to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community.” In addition, a parliamentary committee preparing a same-sex marriage bill. The country’s three major parties all support LGBTI rights (IBNLive 2012).
Based on the ruling of the the Supreme Court in late 2008, the government is looking into legalising same-sex marriage. According to several sources, the new Nepalese constitution, which is currently being drafted, will include same-sex marriage and protection for sexual minorities (Gurubacharya 2012).

Homosexual tourism

The government has its incentive to protect LGBT rights and allow same-sex marriage. "The government is hoping to increase the number of tourists from 400,000 to one million next year and has taken a positive attitude to welcoming gay and lesbian visitors to help meet their ambitious target," according to Sunil Babu Pant, the leader of the country's homosexual rights movement. Mr Pant is hoping to build on the government's new determination to maximise income from tourism by targeting all potential markets.He has launched a travel company dedicated to promoting the former Hindu kingdom to attract wealthy gay visitors to boost the country's war-ravaged economy. The country's tourism minister wrote a welcome statement for the International Conference on Gay and Lesbian Tourism in Boston last October, in which he said he believed Nepal will benefit from an increase in gay visitors (Nelson 2010).